Razmišljanja o kugi

Author(s): Giorgio Agamben / Language(s): Serbian

Misli koje slede nisu misli o epidemiji, već o otkrićima do kojih dolazimo posmatrajući reakcije koje ona izaziva među ljudima. Razmišljam o lakoći s kojom je čitavo društvo prihvatilo osećaj sopstvene zaraženosti kugom, zatvaranje u kuće, ukidanje uobičajenog načina života, odbacivanje veza prijateljstva, ljubavi, rada, čak i verskih i političkih ubeđenja. Zašto su protesti i otpor, u ovakvim situacijama očekivani i zamislivi, ipak izostali? Teza koju želim da predložim jeste to da je na određeni način, a opet nesvesno, kuga već bila među nama, da su uslovi ljudskog života očito vremenom postali takvi da nam je jedan neočekivani znak bio dovoljan da ih prepoznamo onakvim kakvi zapravo jesu – kao nepodnošljive, upravo kao kugu.

THE IMPACT OF ISIS ON IRAQ’S NATIONAL SECURITY: REVIEW OF THE PERIOD FROM 2014 TO 2017

Author(s): Araz Ramazan Ahmad,Gardwn Tahir Othman / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

In the post-Ba’athist era, stability and national security remain the two key goals. Iraq has suffered from many extremist terrorist groups on several separate stages from 2003 to 2017. The most threatening terrorist group was ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), which has enormous impacts on Iraqi society, given the vast geographical areas that it controlled, and the dangers, crimes and violations suffered by the Iraqi people with all its components. The main aim of this study is to determine the impacts of ISIS on Iraqi national security. The study relied on Content Analysis Method to analyze the collected data and achieve its aims. Also, the primary research question is about the impact of ISIS on Iraq’s national security from 2014 to 2017. Correspondingly, an international coalition of more than a hundred countries was formed to stop the rapid expansion of ISIS. The number of victims who lost their lives and were affected at the psychological and humanitarian levels was explained in this study. According to the research results, ISIS was seeking long-term goals. The most important was the preparation for disseminating this new extremist ideology. The intelligence and the exploitation of poverty, ignorance, and political conflicts that ISIS used aimed to implant the extremist mentality in the most significant number of attention.

MIGRATION AND RELIGIOUS SOCIALIZATION IN NIGERIA: THE FULANIZATION DILEMMA

Author(s): Peter O. O. Ottuh,Onos Godwin Idjakpo / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

Migration has remarkably influenced the development of civilization and the establishment of cultural borders throughout history. In the case of Nigeria, one of the negative impacts of migration has been the violent seizure of ancestral lands by the

'Saint Paraskevi' Church in Tălmăcel.

Author(s): Ioan Ovidiu Abrudan / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2022

Un siècle après la publication des premières recherches sur l’église Sainte-Parascève de Tălmăcel, de nouvelles études permettent de reconstituer l’histoire de la fondation du village transylvain à la fin du xviiie siècle. Elles mettent en évidence la valeur architecturale et le caractère représentatif des composantes artistiques dont l’église du village a été dotée à différents moments historiques; caractéristiques qui ont déterminé le classement de cette église en tant que monument historique. La présente étude se propose de réexaminer les recherches publiées jusqu’à présent et poursuit l’investigation grâce, entre autres, aux apports fournis par la restauration de l’ensemble mural. Les informations inédites identifiées dans les documents, les notes transcrites dans les anciens livres liturgiques des archives paroissiales, permettent d’identifier la signature de l’artiste Ioan de Poplaca, à qui l’on devrait certaines parties de la peinture murale de l’église. Sa contribution, jusqu’ici inconnue, peut être désormais différenciée de celle de l’autre peintre, Panteleimon. La différenciation de leur activité à Tălmăcel permet de mettre en évidence quelques particularités stylistiques propres à chacun de nos deux artistes; caractéristiques qui, par analogie, nous pouvons également identifier dans d’autres de leurs oeuvres. À titre subsidiaire, l’article permet de reconstituer leurs biographies.

IMPROVING WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT THROUGH EVOLUTION IN KENYA: THE CASE OF NAIROBI AND KAKAMEGA COUNTIES

Author(s): Sylvester Ngome Chisika,Chunho Yeom / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

This study aimed to investigate the progress of women's empowerment through employment opportunities in Nairobi and Kakamega Counties in Kenya between 2013 and 2017. Despite the increasing policies that aim to mainstream social equity and equality, there is still a significant gap between policy commitments and practices. The study evaluated whether the implementation of devolved governance in the two counties has improved women's empowerment. The study's framework included an in-depth review of policy documents, official records, and reports from official websites to understand women's economic empowerment status in Nairobi and Kakamega. The study analyzed qualitative and quantitative data from County Integrated Development Plans and other secondary sources. Specifically, it examined compliance with the 30% gender rule, requiring women to hold at least 30% of all elective and appointive positions. The study found that Nairobi commands the largest share of formal sector wage employment in Kenya, and women's access to employment opportunities remains slightly lower than men in both counties. Despite implementing the 30% gender rule, the study revealed the need for more comprehensive policies that promote gender equality and women's economic empowerment in both Nairobi and Kakamega.

THE STATE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN RUSSIA: TOWARDS ORTHODOX MONOPOLY

Author(s): Aram Terzyan / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

This paper explores the state of religious freedoms in Putin’s Russia, with a special emhasis on the Kremlin’s intensifying efforts at establishing Orthodox monopoly. It is an in-depth case analysis that uses policy and discourse analysis to examine the state of religious freedoms in Russia. It suggests that anti-extremism law has become an instrument of state control over a wide array of speech or activity. Through state-supported legislation, the authorities censor religious life to prevent the rise of anti-government sentiments. The groups most affected by the government’s anti-religious policy are “non-traditional” religious groups, facing hardships in exercising their rights and freedoms. Their activities are increasingly banned on the grounds of “extremism” and “terrorism”. Russia’s tightening of legislation on extremism has been combined with its withdrawal from the Council of Europe, which poses additional threats for religious communities by eliminating any international scrutiny over the government’s actions. This paper concludes that while Russian history has been traditionally characterized by religious intolerance towards small denominations, the intensifying crackdown on religious freedoms is part of the Kremlin’s policy of ensuring a monopoly across the country for the Russian Orthodox Church.

Разказите за пророчески сънища: към изследването на фолклорната култура на сънуване

Author(s): Smiljana Đorđević Belić / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

After a theoretical review of the studies of dreams in anthropologically oriented research, the author especially considers folkloristic studies of the dreams symbolism, as well as the dream stories as a genre. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the analysis of field narratives – the stories of prophetic dreams. The focus is on the problems of the interpretation logic, the way of fitting into the autobiographical experience, and the relationship between the individual conceptions of dreams symbolism and the traditional matrices.

Прогноза за времето: от епичния „край на света“ до апокалипсиса днес

Author(s): Lidija D. Delić / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

The paper examines the folklore understanding of weather conditions, archaic conceptualization of cataclysms and contemporary newspaper/internet articles on similar topics in a comparative context. It turns out that modern civilization inherits part of the rhetorical repository and imaginary of traditional cultures when it comes to meteorological phenomena, employing them in a new context in the already recognized global “discourse of fear/intimidation” (F. Furedi, D. Altheide, P. Cap). At the same time, this rhetorical identification is seductive insofar as all its parameters (the planet has warmed since pre-industrial times, glaciers are melting, sea levels have risen, a large percentage of forests emitting oxygen have been cut down, the ozone layer and ecosystem-regulating animal species vanish, humanity has increased enormously) speak that on a global level something dramatic is happening and that we are not just witnessing another of the great resurrections of history and its (mis)use.

Фолклорът и фантастиката в славянски контекст

Author(s): Ana Savić / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

Book Review: Савремена српска фолклористика VIII ‒ словенски фолклор и књижевна фантастика. Ур. Дејан Ајдачић и Бошко Сувајџић. Београд: Удружење фолклориста Србије, Универзитетска библи- отека „Светозар Марковић”; Кијев: Комисија за фолклористику Међународног комитета слависта; Лозница: Центар за културу „Вук Караџић”, 2020. 518 стр. ISBN 978-86-7301-149-3

„Вода от извор извирала“ – за символиката на водата в южнославянската устна поезия

Author(s): Dejan Ilić / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

Book Review: Ана Вукмановић. У трагању за извир водом. Слике воде у јужнословенској усменој лирици. Београд: Академска књига, 2020. 296 стр. ISBN 978-86-6263-301-9

Разомагьосване, повторно омагьосване и фолклорни жанрове

Author(s): Ana Vukmanović / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

Book Review: Disenchantment, Re-enchantment and Folklore Genres. Ed. by Nemanja Radulović, Smiljana Đorđević Belić. Belgrade: Institute for Literature and Arts, 2021. 286 pp. ISBN 978-86-7095-286-7

Празникът „Кюстендилска пролет“ и социалистическата празничност: Идеология и политики (Част 2)

Author(s): Svetla I. Kazalarska / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2022

The article analyzes the local holiday “Kyustendil Spring Day”, invented in the late 1960s, in the context of the socialist festivity policies by examining the ideological content inscribed in its semantics, symbols and rituals. The overarching research questions refer to the instrumentalization of the holiday by the socialist authorities and its functions in the local festive calendar. The analysis rests upon archival material, articles in the local press, photographs, and discussions and comments in the social media networks, as well as upon a limited number of interviews conducted by the author.

Традиция и иновация (Как фолклорната култура на Чехия и България намира нов живот в медийната среда през време и след пандемията от 2020 година)

Author(s): Nevena Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

Diverse influences of folklore tradition in contemporary media are presented in this article. The pandemic “closure” and encapsulation of the normal rhythm of life in 2020 unleashed a wave of creative TV, radio, social media manifestations, focused not only on covering the unusual situation, but also on the particular “return” to traditional practices and ways of adapting to the daily life routine. Self-introspection became a journey towards primordial rituals where tragic and comic coexist in the resistance and affirmation of life. The observed and analysed examples are from the Czech and Bulgarian media environment.

Международна славистична научна конференция „Интердисциплинарно изследване на изворите за език и духовна култура: словашко-славянски взаимовръзки“

Author(s): Rayna Rozhdestvenska / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

Events

Contemporary Representations of Ktetors in Romanian Churches. A Debate (Part 1)

Author(s): Ana Dumitran,Laura Jiga Iliescu,Vladimir Agrigoroaei,Luiza Zamora / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2023

The Histories and Film Festival in Râşnov (FFIR—Festiva-lul de Film și Istorii la Râşnov) held its fifteenth edition from 18 to 27 August 2023. ‘Radicalisation’ was the main theme of the festival, namely the fact that “our society seems less and less open to balanced dialogue; everyone defends and imposes their own truth and nuances dis-appear.” Museikon organised a debate on the topic ‘Con-temporary votive depictions—from Stephen the Great to the ktetors of our days’ (Tablouri votive contemporane – de la Ștefan cel Mare la ctitorii de azi) in the Old Church of Râşnov (dedicated to Saint Nicholas), on Wednesday 23 August 2023.

Echoes

Author(s): / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2023

„Твое е само това, което си раздал“. Погребална и поменална обредност при българи мюсюлмани (По примери от село Брезница, Гоцеделчевско)

Author(s): Behrin Shopova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2023

The article examines the funeral and memorial rites in the village of Breznitsa, Gocedelchev region. The specific local manifestations of the practices studied are presented in comparison with those of the other Muslim communities. Various elements of this rite are described both as prescriptions in the Koran and the Hadiths, and as the narrative tradition of the Bulgarian Muslims. The analysis of the connections between written and oral traditions shows the presence of an untransformed, ancient layer which continues to exist in parallel with the precepts of traditional Sunni Islam, characteristic of Ottoman culture. The field data used is gathered by the author in the period 2021–2023.

Религиозност в трансформация: народни и нормативни религиозни практики в Източна Грузия

Author(s): Ketevan Khutsishvili / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2023

Georgian everyday life is highly tied up with the rich religious traditions that have been developed as a result of the centuries-long synthesis of pre-Christian and Christian practices and worldviews. The Soviet period caused the fragmentation of the traditional religious knowledge and the practice moved to the household level and was paganized. In the post-Soviet period, the burst of religious sentiments and search for identity increased the involvement of big masses to religious practices. The transformations were accompanied by a process of individualization of religion, which has led to a change of forms of religiosity. Based on the ethnographic data of East Georgia, the article discusses the correlation of the normative, vernacular and resistant forms of religiosity. Historical-comparative and parallel analyses are used to research two examples of religious practice: Lomisoba and Berikaoba. Lomisoba is analyzed as an example of hybrid, massive, collective holiday. Berikaoba is more local, not connected to a sacred site, performative festival. It is argued that the contemporary processes are having an impact on the religiosity and the religiosity of certain groups is trying to be defined in new forms. All the old and new forms of religiosity are explicitly displayed and played out in contemporary Georgia. At the same time there are some hidden, or rather implicit practices.

Трансформация на образа на чинка във вярванията на съвременните грузинци (Според устни разкази и архивни текстове)

Author(s): Marine Turashvili / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2023

In the present article we examine mythological legends on imps, belonging to a specific genre of Georgian folk prose. They are new and have occupied their autonomous place in Georgian folklore since the 80s of the XIX century. During investigation we used the methods of secondary analysis and comparison. We used the texts of oral histories comparing them with published texts and with those kept in the Folklore Archive of Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature. Oral histories are also recorded during our field-work in 2009 and kept as video materials in the mentioned archive. Unpublished archival materials contain the beliefs of the “low mythology” that have universal character. Mythological narratives on imps are based on real stories that are later transformed into unknowable events by folk imagination. In order to gain an understanding of this folk character, it is necessary to consider a number of key questions. These include: where do they try to meet people, how do they look – in terms of their appearance – when they are activated, how do they relocate, what is their function, what kind of relations do they have with human beings, and how can people get rid of them. In addition, it is important to consider the modern people’s attitude towards this character. Their habitation is proximate to that of humans, in narrow gorges, dark, abandoned and jinxed locales. They meet people in uninhabited places, attempting to intimidate them, but as the area becomes settled, they leave. In popular imagination, the imp is a diminutive malevolent spirit, resembling a man’s offspring. It may also take the form of a wild animal. They emerge from the second half of October to the middle of November, posing a significant threat to people, even causing madness. If a man knows how to get rid of a chinka, the chinka cannot cause harm; if not, a man will become ill for a long time or up to the end of his life. Imps are afraid of fire. If anybody threatens him with a firebrand, the imp immediately runs away. In modern language, the name of this mythological figure is used for the description of a quick, astute, nimble person. The investigation revealed that the imp of the third generation, an evil spirit, left a lasting impression on the population and continues to be a topic of interest to this day. The research demonstrated that texts on imps are accompanied by a narrator’s synoptic marking.

Шедьовърът на Руставели – ренесансова поема или средновековен роман?

Author(s): Yordan Lyutskanov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2023

The article introduces to the late medieval romance in verse Vepkhistq’aosani by Shota Rustaveli – the central artefact in Georgian cultural self-awareness and the top item of ‘high’ Georgian cultural export. It briefly presents its narrative content, indicating the correlation of two plot-lines (initially through enframing, after some point though horizontal interlacing). It briefly introduces to the main fluctuations and 20th-century tendency in translating the work’s title, interpreting the fluctuations as indicative of aesthetic differences, and the tendency as an indication of the ‘cultural market’ success of the Soviet-Georgian (in its ideological and aesthetical basis –a Stalinist and socialist-realist) image of Rustaveli’s masterpiece. It presents two influential to dominant claims of Georgian Rustvelology – that the work is a poema (and not a novel/romance) and that it displays, at least partially, Renaissance outlook and poetics, – considering these claims as tools (1) of Soviet “Culture Two” to allot a proper place to Georgian nation within the alternative modernity of the USSR and its premodern background-under-construction, and (2) of Soviet-Georgian cultural nationalism to define a usable past in post-Soviet conditions; and (3) as beliefs. It revitalises the option to contextualise the work of Rustaveli (and, indirectly, Georgian cultural identity) in non-Eurocentric terms, providing some factographic and theoretic clues from the field of macrohistory (J. Abu-Lughod et al.) and a methodological one from sociology of arts (P. Bourdieu).